
“You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed…”
Source: Levels of Life
Introduction, p. xiii
The "old electors" Bagehot refers to were the £10 borough householders enfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832.
The English Constitution (1867)
Context: But the mass of the old electors did not analyse very much: they liked to have one of their "betters" to represent them; if he was rich they respected him much; and if he was a lord, they liked him the better. The issue put before these electors was, which of two rich people will you choose? And each of those rich people was put forward by great parties whose notions were the notions of the rich—whose plans were their plans. The electors only selected one or two wealthy men to carry out the schemes of one or two wealthy associations.
“You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed…”
Source: Levels of Life
Middlebury College Address (2004)
Context: There will be many choices before you, some of which you’ll welcome and celebrate, and then there will be some over which you will anguish. Some choices will choose you. How you face these choices, these turns in the road, with what kind of attitude, more than the choices themselves, is what will define the context of your life.
State of the Art (2000)
Source: Blood in My Eye (1971), p. 72
“When two or more people agree on an issue, I form on the other side.”
“You are what you choose to be today. Not what you've chosen to be before.”